Gunners look for title proof in 2016
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AS 2016 dawns, English Premier League front-runner Arsenal goes in search of evidence that it is capable of striking out on its own in pursuit of a first title since 2004.
With Manchester United and Chelsea toiling, Liverpool rebuilding under Juergen Klopp and Manchester City damagingly porous, Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger appears to have reached a decisive juncture in his 19-year tenure.
His team has been top on New Year’s Day three times in the last 14 years, only to see its title hopes fade on each occasion, but Wenger feels that the current crop has what it takes to go the distance.
“I believe that we are mature enough and that we have the requested quality to fight and compete,” he said ahead of today’s home game with third-bottom Newcastle United.
“The most important thing is to feel, at the end of the season, that we have given absolutely everything to be successful.
“It is not the date (New Year’s Day) that is decided you win the league. It shows you that we have a good chance as the statistics show you that eight of the past 11 years, the team who was top on New Year’s Day won it.”
Arsenal continues to nurse frailties of its own, as shown by its 0-4 Boxing Day drubbing at Southampton, but last Monday’s 2-0 win over Bournemouth was enough to take it top of the table on goal difference after former leader Leicester City could only draw 0-0 with Manchester City.
Leicester lost 0-1 at Liverpool prior to Tuesday’s goalless stalemate with City, but manager Claudio Ranieri says that his players are determined not to let their early-season momentum peter out.
“We’ve had a fantastic half-season, it’s unbelievable what we are doing and we must continue,” said the Italian, whose team welcomes Bournemouth to the King Power Stadium today.
“We will fight right until the end and we want to win. If we give 100 percent, then we accept every result.”
City, three points off the pace in third place, continues to oscillate between the sublime and the ridiculous and has gone 10 league games without recording back-to-back victories.
Boxing Day win
Against Watford it will once again be without skipper Vincent Kompany, after he aggravated a calf injury during the 4-1 Boxing Day win over Sunderland, and manager Manuel Pellegrini admits that he is desperate to get to the bottom of the influential center-back’s injury problems.
“We are trying to do all (we can) to know how we can help Vincent to try to be fit and not to continue with the same calf problems,” the Chilean told his pre-match press conference on New Year’s Eve.
“Everything the club can do, we are going to do it.”
City’s travails have given hope to Tottenham Hotspur, which is just a point behind it in fourth place prior to its trip to Everton tomorrow, when the Londoners will be chasing a fourth successive league win.
Spurs’ form is also of concern to both Liverpool and United, who find themselves five points off the UEFA Champions League places at the season’s halfway stage.
Speculation about United manager Louis van Gaal’s future has quietened down since Monday’s 0-0 draw with Chelsea, but the volume will rise quickly if his side fails to produce an adequate performance at home to Swansea City, which has won the last three clashes between the teams.
“We have to get points, otherwise the gap is too big and that is why we have to do what we have to do,” Van Gaal said. “We have to work, prepare the game, perform and then evaluate the game again. That is of course much more difficult when you don’t win than when you win.”
Champion Chelsea, three points above the relegation zone, visits fifth-place London rivals Crystal Palace tomorrow with Guus Hiddink still seeking the first win of his second stint as interim manager.
Meanwhile, neither bottom club Aston Villa nor second-bottom Sunderland can afford defeat in their showdown at the Stadium of Light, with the two teams, respectively, 11 and seven points from safety.
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